John Pasalis

02/11/2026

Mortgage stress in Toronto has quadrupled since the COVID lows.

This isn’t random, and it’s not just about interest rates.

02/04/2026

Another brokerage is being shut down after concerns that consumer deposits were taken from trust accounts.

This is the second major case in under a year, and it raises uncomfortable questions about what happens when sales volumes collapse and oversight is limited.

02/02/2026

The only thing colder than Toronto’s weather right now might be the condo market.

Inventory has hit a record 8 months, and prices are down 11% year-over-year.

01/28/2026

Toronto’s new condo market is hitting a breaking point. Sales have collapsed, construction is slowing, and completions are expected to fall sharply over the next few years. But be cautious of anyone claiming this guarantees a price boom. What happens next depends on many factors that are still uncertain.

01/16/2026

Last week I joined Amanda Lang on BNN Bloomberg to talk about how we make housing more accessible for the next generation of Canadians.

The core point I made is simple:

If governments want more homes owned by Canadian families, they have to make it harder and less lucrative to treat houses as investment properties. There are no shortcuts around that.

That view puts me at odds with much of the housing economics community. The dominant argument is that zoning, red tape, and supply restrictions are the real problem. Fix those, and affordability takes care of itself.

But that theory ignores how housing actually works in the real world.

Even if every zoning rule vanished tomorrow, you can’t triple homebuilding overnight. Construction is constrained by labour, infrastructure, financing, and time. Those frictions don’t disappear just because policy changes.

Capital, on the other hand, is frictionless. It moves instantly.

Billions of dollars can flow into housing long before the construction sector can meaningfully expand. That’s why young families aren’t really just competing with each other. They’re competing with investment capital, and potentially global capital again if the foreign buyer ban is lifted in 2027.

There’s a real-world example of how this plays out. About a decade ago, the UK government introduced policies that made it harder to buy and less profitable to own residential investment properties. Investor demand fell, and over the following years a larger share of homes went to first-time buyers. That shift didn’t require a construction miracle. It came from changing the incentives.

And while investor demand is quieter today, greed isn’t gone. Homes, and especially the land beneath them, will remain highly coveted assets in the years ahead.

The choices policymakers make now will shape whether the next decade belongs to families who want to live in their homes or investors who want to own them.

11/07/2025

🏠What’s driving the surge in Power of Sales?

It’s not just about higher interest rates!

12/12/2024

In this month's Live Market Update, I'll walk through the latest trends in Toronto's housing market and will share my outlook for 2025

*Watch live and on-demand after the event here* Talk to John and his agents at Realosophy about your own questions: https://www.movesmartly.com/meetjohnEach...

10/09/2024

The Toronto area's housing market has made a complete 180-degree turn over the past six months. Why?

In March of this year, things were pretty competitive. Homes were selling quickly and often with multiple offers. Fast forward to today, and things are a lot slower. We're seeing more for sale signs and far fewer sold signs; homes and condos are getting far fewer showings. Inventory is piling up. What is behind this relatively sudden shift in the market?

Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking at an event hosted by Bank of America. Once a year, they have their Canada Banks Day, where many of their top clients meet with the CEOs and executives of Canada's top banks. The evening before that day, they hosted a private dinner and invited me to discuss Canada's housing market. I've been speaking at this event for several years, and it's always a great experience because they ask fantastic questions, which makes me think harder about our housing market.

One of their questions prompted this post. Before the event, they asked me what had happened to Toronto's market over the past six months.
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While I have been discussing the slowdown in the Toronto area’s housing market for a number of months in my reports, I have not yet dug into the data further to try to explain why things have slowed down, what is behind this and what is happening.

In this month’s report, I looked at how sales and new listing volumes for low-rise homes and condos performed each month relative to their 10-year average. I also shared some thoughts on what might be behind the trends in the data.

Toronto’s Fall Housing Market Remains Cool | Why Has Toronto’s Real Estate Market Suddenly Hit the Brakes? | When ‘Help for Home Buyers’ Just Means More Buyer Debt | Monthly Statistics

09/12/2024

*Watch live and on-demand after the event here* Talk to John and his agents at Realosophy about your own questions: https://www.movesmartly.com/meetjohnEach...

08/14/2024

Join me and my team this Thursday August 15th for my monthly market update

Listings way up, sales historically low - so why aren't home prices falling yet?

Join our monthly market update presented by John Pasalis of Move Smartly - Real Estate News / Realosophy Realty and his insightful guests: Realosophy's Gus Papaioannou and Davin McMahon, Sales Representative and our Move Smartly Mortgage Expert Blogger Dave The Mortgage Broker - use link to join us live on Thurs August 15th 12PM ET or watch on demand after!

https://hubs.la/Q02LlWft0

06/12/2024

You can read all about the latest trends in Toronto's housing market in my June monthly report

Key stories this month include:
* Record Number of Condos for Sale in the Toronto Area
* What Buyers and Sellers Can Expect as Bank Finally Cuts Rate
* Booming Population and Plummeting Housing Starts
* PM Trudeau Says Home Prices Must Remain High
* Latest Market Stats

Record Number of Condos for Sale in the Toronto Area | What Buyers and Sellers Can Expect as Bank Finally Cuts Rate | Booming Population and Plummeting Housing Starts | PM Trudeau Says Home Prices Must Remain High | Latest Market Stats

06/05/2024

At the end of May, the Toronto area had 9,951 condominiums available for sale, the highest number of units for sale for any month in recent history.

What’s behind the record number of condominium listings?

Investors are rushing for the exits. Higher interest rates are driving up mortgage payments, making condominium investing far more expensive. Rents are not high enough to cover the average investor’s mortgage, taxes, and maintenance fees.

Beyond high interest rates, declining rents and record condo completions scheduled for the year ahead combined with our federal government’s plan to reduce the number of non-permanent residents in Canada have left investors less optimistic about the future price growth for Toronto condos.

The Toronto area saw a 30% increase in new listings of condominiums in May but only an 18% increase in owner-occupied condos and a 56% increase in the number of vacant condominiums listed for sale. Investors typically list their condominiums for sale when they are vacant.

While condo prices are down slightly over last year, this decline has more to do with the slight surge in prices the Toronto market saw last year. Since the start of the year, Toronto condo prices have been trending up and have plateaued over the past two months.

The City of Toronto saw the highest Months of Inventory in May at just under 4.5 with Halton seeing the lowest level.

Over the next six months, it will be critical to keep an eye on the change in condominium inventory levels and how market prices respond. Time will tell if condo prices remain sticky or if we begin to see some downward pressure on condo prices.

The Toronto area has 9,951 condos for sale, the highest number in recent history. Move Smartly June market report by John Pasalis of Realosophy Realty